Stink. He’d told her she stank! Rionna slid farther down in the tub until water lapped at her ears. They still burned with mortification, and she could still hear the men’s laughter ringing in her ears as she’d all but fled into the keep.

He’d humiliated her. Not just with words but by actions. He’d proven her inept and she’d committed the sin of allowing herself to become distracted.

She knew all of this. She wasn’t an idiot. She could hold her own with a sword, and yet from the moment she’d become aware of his presence, all sense had flown right out of her mind.

She’d become nothing more than a bumbling fool playing at being a man. Her disgust knew no bounds.

A knock sounded at her door. She frowned and sunk so low in the tub that only her nose and eyes stuck out of the water. A moment later, the door opened and Maddie stuck her head in.

“Ah, there you are, lass. Caelen thought you might be needing help. He wants you below stairs to break your fast in half an hour’s time.”

“Oh he does, does he?” Rionna muttered.

“Let me help wash your hair. ’Twill take some doing to get it all dry in such a short time. You have such long, thick hair. ’Tis as beautiful as a sunset over the loch.”

The woman’s praise bolstered Rionna’s flagging spirits. She knew she wasn’t beautiful. Keeley was beautiful. Rionna … Well, part of it was her fault. She could have practiced being more feminine when she was younger.

Now her body had lost some of her youthful softness and she had muscles that no lady should ever have. Her arms were firm. Her waist slender. Her legs were hard with muscle, and no flab gathered at her hips. In fact she was quite narrow.

The only womanly place on her was her breasts, and she despaired of them. They simply didn’t match the rest of her.

Which is why she kept them bound. They simply got in her way and they were a great distraction.

There were occasions when her father insisted she dress as a woman, the few times the McDonalds hosted honored guests. Her mother’s gowns had been altered, but the bodice had still been too tight. Her breasts had strained the limits of the bodice, and the result was men making twits of themselves as they stared lasciviously at her cleavage.

Men were ridiculous. Show them a breast and they became slobbering fools.

And one man was a fool above all others and ’twas him she feared the most. As long as she remained boyish in figure, she didn’t have to worry about drawing unwanted attention.